Guardian of the Holy Sepulcher, Monk Theodoulos, talks about the Holy Light

Maria Gia Giahnaki: I would now like you to tell me, to take us back a little while ago, there was an incident with an interview that Bishop Armenis had given to the Holy Sepulchre, in the context of an interview of an Israeli-Jewish crew, about the Holy Light. What exactly had happened that day? You were on duty at the Holy Sepulchre, weren't you?

Monk Theodolos: Yes. I was a morning guard, that was in the early morning hours. I would like to begin my speech in this way and tell those who are listening that Christ said in the Gospel that he who is not worthy to be given a little is not worthy to be given much, and he who is not worthy to be trusted with small things is not worthy to be trusted with great things either. And I will make an addition: he who told the little lie outside the Holy Sepulchre, when he entered the Holy Sepulchre, he also told the big lie.

And what do I mean? This bishop, Samuel, is the abbot of the Armenians. As you know, in the Holy Sepulchre there are Orthodox, Catholics and Armenians. The Copts, who have no rights within the Holy Sepulchre. Each brotherhood has its abbot who is respected and accepted by the others. He is the abbot of each fraternity. So this despot, Father Samuel, the abbot of the Armenians, came with the canal. ... We know that in order to allow a channel to film inside the Church we have to have permissions from all three Patriarchates, written permissions. He comes and tells me that they have permits from all three Patriarchates, they have papers, and they want to shoot footage inside the Holy Sepulchre.

I trusted him because he is the abbot of the Armenians. But they didn't have permits. He lied to me. Because I, if he hadn't told me and I asked for the permits and I saw that they didn't have them, I wouldn't have let them enter the Cubicle to do an interview.

Maria Gia Giahnaki: So they came in.

Monk Theodolos: So they came in. He told me this lie and then he went into the Holy Sepulchre and started saying all these disrespectful and blasphemous things about the Holy Light. This miracle of Orthodoxy throughout the centuries which has been written down in history. You know the miracle which is in Colona coming out of the Holy Sepulchre, in which the Armenians have been showered and it has been written in history. And not only that. We also have the Muslim who was up in the minaret at that time, who saw the miracle, confessed that the true God is Jesus Christ of the Christians, I believe in Jesus Christ, they caught him, they beheaded him. He was baptized in his blood and martyred and became a saint. We have his remains in the Monastery of the Great Virgin Mary. He is Saint Tunom. So all this is written in history.  In 1579 under Murat II these things were done. 

Maria Gia Giahnaki: So you heard him say that there is no Holy Light.

Monk Theodolos: I heard him say, I let him go a little bit to see where he would go. Then I couldn't stand it either. ... We are the guardians, the protectors of the Cube, of the Holy Sepulchre, the Orthodox, and to have a heretic come in who even claims that three times he says he tried to see the Holy Light and didn't see it. But of course he cannot see it because he is a heretic. How can he see it? The Holy Spirit does not bless heresies. The Holy Spirit blesses the Truth and those who remain faithful to the Truth.

So when I heard him telling all these lies, well, I got excited and stopped him. Of course, I didn't have much time to restore and say many things about the truth. I only said that our Patriarch is praying inside the Holy Sepulchre, Armenis is sitting outside in the Chapel of the Angel-that is where Armenis is standing, he is not entering the Holy Sepulchre. And as the Patriarch is praying, reading the Blessing of the Holy Light, the Holy Spirit comes down miraculously, lights the Patriarch's torches and then the Patriarch gives it to Armenes. The Armenian gives it to his people - the Armenians have their own hole, you know, you know - and then our Patriarch is the first to come out of the Holy Canopy. For it is for the sake of the Orthodox Patriarch that the Holy Light came down, for no one else, not for an Armenian, not for a Copt, not for a Protestant, not for anyone else. Only for the sake of the Orthodox Patriarch who preserves the truth of the doctrines, which the Orthodox Church has not deviated from throughout the centuries.

So first our Patriarch comes out, goes to the Catholicos to enter the Sanctuary, and then the Armenian Patriarch comes out. Second, tail. So the truth is in us, the ones who come out first.

And I also want to say, that the Orthodox Church has an autonomous prayer. We do not need someone to stand with us in our prayer to bring forth Holy Light or for a miracle to take place. Our prayer is self-reliant because we have remained faithful to the doctrines of the Gospel and the Father inviolable. We have not changed anything. I don't have to be an Armenian or a Copt or a Catholic or a Protestant to pray for God to hear me. No. Since I am a member of the Church and hold the doctrines of the Faith, my prayer is self-sufficient. Not that I personally have power, but God hears my prayer and gives me my requests. I will not go to pray with a heretic because I feel that my prayer is weak for God to perform a miracle for me. God will not perform a miracle. God does not accept intercessory prayer.

And when the Armenian and the Orthodox Patriarch are in the Cubicle or in the ceremony of the Holy Light - there are Armenians and Copts and Orthodox - the prayers are not mixed there, it's not a prayer in unison. ... Armenians pray because they are Armenians and they pray at that time. Our prayer is independent and separate. We do not join our prayer with the heretics and we do not need to pray with them in order to get a miracle or to receive our requests from Christ. What we ask for is the prayers of our fellow believers, the Orthodox, to strengthen our prayer.  That is what we ask for. The heretics we do not ask for them, nor do we want them, nor do we invite them.

And let me tell you the last thing because we live here with the communities and with the Armenians. Armenians have great envy of us, very great envy and they are very jealous of Greeks. Because they see our behavior with the world, they see that all the lights are on us. But let me tell you something though? We didn't get the holy shrines, God gave them to us. God gave them to us, we didn't get them ourselves. But they want to take them from us on their own and they become God-fearers in this way. Besides being heretics, they do not respect what God gave them to us. He gave it to the Greeks, and He entrusted it to them.

It does not mean that we are better than others, [that] the other Orthodox peoples are at a disadvantage. No. It is a matter of management as in a business. There is the manager, the vice-manager, the executives. It's the same in Orthodoxy, there are gradations but yet we are all the same Orthodox. God does not distinguish Orthodox from Orthodox. Anyone who strives to follow God's will, to do God's commandments, to strive in his daily life with God's help and with the Church's means to progress in virtue little by little, this Christian Orthodox will at some point receive the Grace of the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and will be sanctified. God does not deprive anyone of holiness; Orthodox of course, only the Orthodox can attain holiness.

So we're the envy of us and I'll tell you the last thing, forgive me if I've overstayed my welcome. A few months ago - for this despot is arguing that there is no Holy Light and that they will pray for Holy Light to come - after the door of the Church was closed in the afternoon, I went to do some cleaning inside the Cubicle, which I am entitled to do. And on entering the Holy Chapel two Armenian women came from outside and began screaming and shouting for me to come out. I say I'm not going out, I'm going to finish my work and then I'm going out. They forced their way in. For fifteen minutes in the Holy Sepulchre, they dragged me, they bruised me. Three times one of them tried to hit me, he raised his hand with such anger and hatred and where he was going to hit me something stopped him. He stopped the first time, I was being dragged out. I don't come out, he tries again the second time, and again something stops him. Then again, threatening me, one after another, getting back in, pulling me. I didn't come out, third time, something stopped him again. So after they saw and feared, just before the scene was over they both went to drown me in the Holy Sepulchre. They went to drown me. There's a complaint filed in Kisla. Two hours I gave a statement to the police. And they cursed me in the vilest way, in the vilest expression that there is, inside the Holy Canopy.

So, how do these people then have hope and expect to see the Holy Light and see miracles?

And blame us for what? I in this whole thing, I didn't make my hand like this to make them like this. I sat back and took it all. I didn't even touch them. I didn't even touch them. Nor did I answer anything they called me. I sat down and just tried to protect myself without using a single act of violence against them. And when they would catch me and drag me I would say, let go of me, don't touch me. I didn't make a move to push his hand away. Well that's what people need to know because these people are violent.

Two years ago at the night Mass of the Holy Light, of the Resurrection. After the Orthodox are done, then the Armenians. In the procession, they were forcibly thrown out. It's the right of the Orthodox guard to sit in the procession. Just so you know a little bit, when the Armenians receive they lay the Tomb for their procession and there is a procession three times from the Holy Cubicle, where the Armenians are first, behind them the Coptic Egyptians, and further behind them the Coptic Syrians, and one after the other they come to the front of the Holy Cubicle. Three times they make the procession. But the third time, when it is the third time after the Armenians pass, the Egyptians enter the Tomb, say some prayer, read the Gospel, leave, then the Syrians enter, leave, and then the Armenians receive. So when the Armenians leave in the third round, there is a right, a right of centuries, the Orthodox guardian who is present enters the Holy Cubicle. Who has the container with the cologne and puts it in the hands of the Egyptian Copts and Syrian Copts by entering in prayer. And he also supervises the Cubicle, overseeing what they do. Because the guardians are the Orthodox, we have the supervision of the Cube.

Well, in this round the monk Juvenalio was thrown out. As soon as he went in, Armenians were waiting for him inside and ten Armenians came in, who were supposedly praying. Ten Armenians, from the Armenian school, left and caught him and made him a football. He got such a beating. Punching, kicking. I lost him. I was across the street and unfortunately, at the time of the attack I turned my head like this, and when I turned around I don't see him and I'm like, what's going on? And I see a bullhorn. He'd been taken down, kicked, punched, footballer. The police were there. And they didn't arrest a single one. We filed complaints and they didn't want to go forward with it.

Well, these are the Armenians. They use violence. They're violent, bloodthirsty people, let the world know. They are not the victims who come and present themselves [as] victims. Victims are us who are two, or five people here and struggling to keep the pilgrimages peaceful way. We never created a problem for them. We never provoked them. They constantly want to claim and take from us. And if they take even one so much, it's a waste for us because they take it from us. We never took from theirs, they took from ours. They took from what we had.

God gave them to us. That's the way He wanted it.